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The Obama administration has awarded $230 million in federal funding for an Amtrak connection between Chicago and Iowa City. The link would go through the Quad-Cities.
(AP PHOTO)

Quad-City rail project to get $230 million

Ed Tibbetts

Oct 25, 2010

The Obama administration has awarded $230 million in federal funding for an Amtrak connection between Chicago and Iowa City. The link would go through the Quad-Cities.
(AP PHOTO)

The Obama administration has awarded $230 million in federal
funding for an Amtrak connection between Chicago and Iowa City that
will establish a passenger rail link in the Quad-Cities for the
first time since the 1970s, officials said Monday.

They said they expect the twice-daily service to be operational
in 2015.

“This is the best day in a long time,” Paul Rumler, executive
director of the Quad-Cities

Passenger Rail Coalition, said. “It’s been a long time
coming.”

There had been inklings for a couple weeks that an announcement
was imminent on the application by the states of Iowa and Illinois
for $248 million in federal money for the 220-mile link.

The word came just after midday Monday, announced by U.S. Sens.
Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

The money is one of the largest — if not the largest — single
federal grant for a project involving the Quad-Cities, advocates
for the rail connection say.

Rumler likened it to an investment in a new airport.

This is the second time the two states have tried for federal
money for the rail connection. They lost out last year in the
high-profile national competition for a chunk of the $8 billion in
federal stimulus money devoted to passenger rail.

This money comes from $2.5 billion in high-speed and intercity
passenger rail appropriations that Congress approved for fiscal
year 2010.

The money will pay for service between Chicago and Iowa City
that will run at a maximum speed of 79 mph. Average speed is
expected to be 53 mph.

Trains will run twice daily, said Tammy Nicholson, the director
of Iowa’s office of rail transportation.

“This is a great day,” she said.

There still is plenty of work to do before construction begins,
officials say.

Some property must be acquired near Wyanet, Ill., and
environmental and design work remains to be done.

However, Nicholson said, some construction on stations and near
Wyanet is expected to begin in 2013.

Track and communications work is expected the year after that,
and the service should be operational in 2015, according to the
application.

Overall, the application for rail funding was for a $310 million
project.

The state of Illinois has committed $45 million while Iowa and
cities and organizations in that state have pledged another $20.6
million.

Just last week, federal authorities approved $10 million for an
intermodal station in downtown Moline.

The federal award was $18 million short of what the states had
requested, but officials said that wouldn’t keep the project from
getting done.

The grant also includes enough money to purchase locomotives and
passenger trains.

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Durbin and Harkin praised local efforts to get the service,
which have gone on for years.

They also said the project will create nearly 600 jobs per year
for the first four years of design and construction and it would
mean $25 million a year in increased business activity once the
trains are running.

“Passenger rail from Iowa City to Chicago will create jobs now
and, once it is part of a broad intercity network to Des Moines and
all around the Midwest, will help our economy in the long term as
well as add convenience for many Iowans,” Harkin said in a
statement.

The announcement comes just a week before Election Day, and the
announcement by the two Democratic senators included remarks from
Democratic Govs. Chet Culver of Iowa and Pat Quinn of Illinois, as
well as U.S. Reps. Phil Hare, Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack and
Leonard Boswell, all of whom are up for re-election. All four
congressmen are Democrats, with Hare from Illinois and the others
from Iowa.

A splashier event to mark the award is planned for later this
week, but details have not been announced.

The last time passenger rail was in the Quad-Cities was in the
1970s. But for years, advocates have pushed to re-establish a
connection here.

Over the years, momentum has risen and fallen, but the $8
billion in funding that was included in the federal stimulus
package last year provided new momentum.

Even though rail advocates in the state lost out on that money,
they said they strengthened their new application because of the
process.

The states say they think annual ridership will amount to
246,000 people in 2015 with the two daily round trips.

For the long term, advocates have said they hope to make daily
trips more frequent and increase the speed of the train.